U unmistakable flute tones fill
the air. From a bluff in Chi
na's Jiangxi Province, I peer
out at Poyang Lake (above), win
ter home to the world's largest
flock of Siberian cranes. Squinting
as the morning mist burns away,
I see a brilliant line on the hori
zon-hundreds of white birds,
gleaming like candles in the sun.
I counted 1,350 Siberian cranes
on that unforgettable morning in
1985-my first visit to Poyang.
This past December nearly 2,900
birds were spotted there. Though
robust in number, the flock is dan
gerously fragile.
Poyang Lake is fed by several
monsoon-flooded Yangtze tribu
taries and the river itself. As flood
waters ebb, Poyang becomes a
quilt of mudflats and shallows. In
winter Siberian cranes feed almost
exclusively on aquatic roots and
sedge tubers found in such wet
lands. The cranes could perish if
the wetlands drain.
They are being drained-at an
alarming rate. I've watched thou
sands of workers with baskets
and hoes turn area wetlands into
diked agricultural land (above).
Though 55,000 acres around
Poyang Lake are designated as a
reserve, thousands of peasants still
live within its borders, periodically
draining the shallows to catch fish.
Up the Yangtze, work has begun
on the massive Three Gorges
Dam, which could alter the way
National Geographic, May 1994